Star Wars: Of Masks and Mantles

We all wear masks, and there comes a time when we cannot remove them without taking off a lot of skin.

House Rules

Special ActionsAid Another
A single attack roll can only receive the benefit from a maximum of two Aid Another actions. There is no cap on the actual bonus if the aiding characters provide greater than the normal +2 bonus, just a limit to the number of Aid Another bonuses a single attack can receive.

Feats
The Skill Focus feat now provides a +2 bonus or half the heroic level of the character, whichever is higher, to a maximum of +5 at tenth level. Thus, a sixth-level Jedi would gain a +3 bonus to Use the Force checks with Skill Focus (Use The Force).

Talents

The Expert Grappler talent provides a +2 bonus to grapple checks, rather than a +2 bonus to the unarmed attack to start a grapple. This helps you both start and maintain grapples, as well as helps defend you from opponents’ grapple attempts.

The Hammerblow talent now doubles the Strength bonus to the damage rolls of unarmed attacks as long as there is nothing in your hands, rather than doubling the Strength bonus to attack rolls. Landing a hit is not an issue with unarmed attacks, but dealing a good amount of damage compared to other weapons that require less of a feat/talent investment is a concern. Thus, a 1st-level Soldier with 14 Strength, Hammerblow, and Martial Arts I will have a +3 attack roll and a 1d6 + 4 damage roll, rather than a +5 attack roll and a 1d6 + 2 damage roll.

If, when using the Block talent, your Use the Force check is equal to the attack roll of your opponent, you enter a Weapon Lock. Both participants make an opposed Initiative check, and the winner gets to deal their unarmed damage to their opponent as a free action. The character dealing their unarmed damage is not subject to attacks of opportunity for not having the Martial Arts I feat. If the user of the Block talent is using a lightsaber and the opponent’s weapon being blocked is not made of phrik alloy or otherwise resistant to lightsabers, then a Weapon Lock will disable that weapon.

As noted in the Core Rulebook’s errata, the Deflect talent can be used to deflect some of the damage from the Force Lightning power. If the Force Lightning power hits but the Deflect attempt succeeds, you take half damage and do not move -1 step down the condition track. If the Deflect attempt succeeds and Force Lightning misses your Reflex defense, the attack deals no damage.

Force Powers

The Temptation of the Dark Side optional rules are more or less taken verbatim from the Force Unleashed campaign guide, with a limit placed on what Dark Side powers and talents you can choose. As a free action, you may spend a Force Point to add one of the listed powers to your Force suite or one of the available talents to your character. The Force power will be in your Force suite until you use it or until the end of the encounter, but once it is used or the encounter ends it cannot be recovered in any of the usual manners. The talents acquired in this way last until the end of the encounter, at which time you receive a Dark Side point for each talent acquired in this manner. This can be used to acquire any talent from the Dark Side, Dark Side Devotee, and Sith talent trees, except for those which create or alter items, such as Sith Alchemy.
Force Powers: Corruption (FU), Dark Rage, Force Scream (KotOR), Fear (KotOR), Vornskr’s Ferocity (JA), Dark Transfer (Legacy)

While a character is receiving the rage bonus from the Dark Rage power, she cannot make any Use the Force checks except to activate powers with the [dark side] descriptor.

The damage of the Move Object power is limited to the availability of objects of a given size. You must also decide what nearby object you intend to use before you roll your Use the Force check. If you do not roll high enough to lift the object, you fail and the power is spent. If you roll Gargantuan, for example, and there isn’t a starfighter or other Gargantuan object handy to throw, you cannot deal Gargantuan damage. This does not affect the damage bonuses from spending a Force Point or Destiny Point, however, and those still add +2d6 or +6d6 to damage, respectively. At the GM’s discretion and a player’s explanation, special consideration may be given to particularly effective items thrown with this power, such as using something heavy and sharp to pierce a vehicle’s armored hull.

Except for powers with the [lightsaber form] descriptor, Force Powers activated with a Standard or Full-Round action in a threatened square will provoke an attack of opportunity, as they require intense concentration.

Second Wind

You can use your Second Wind once per encounter.

The Extra Second Wind feat, or any other similar ability that grants extra uses of Second Wind, instead lets you use two Second Winds per encounter.

Area Attacks

Grenades essentially function as Area Burst 1 attacks from 4th Edition D&D, allowing them to affect a 3×3 area.

The attack roll on an area attack must be 10 or higher in order to deal half damage to missed targets, and a natural roll of 1 never deals damage.

Dark Side Score

You do not need to be fully Dark Side to take levels in the Sith Apprentice or Sith Lord prestige classes, but you will need a Dark Side score of at least 1 plus a way to actually receive some Sith training, either from dark texts, holocrons, or a master. In this campaign setting, “Sith” is not synonymous with “bad guy,” though many Sith are pretty nasty dudes.

You may choose to call on the Dark Side when spending a Force Point to augment a roll, which lets you roll an additional d6 and add it to the total. Doing so increases your Dark Side Score by 1, and doing so to commit something heinous nets an additional Dark Side Score increase of 1. Like most Force Point activities, this is not exclusive to Force users, as all heroes and villains with class levels are capable of being a little more angry when they need to be.